Chapter 1261:
Sherwood had looks, talent, and had climbed from a junior employee to department director entirely on his own merit. Brad had been with the company for three months and was already standing above him, leaving him powerless. All because Kari had chosen him? Because he was engaged to that haughty, untouchable woman?
He set another glass down on the bar with a sharp crack.
“Drinking alone tonight?”
A gentle voice came from beside him.
He turned to find a woman in a burgundy dress settling onto the stool next to his. Her makeup was flawless, her smile warm, her chin propped lightly in her hand. “Rough night?” she asked, her tone soft and unhurried. “It looks like you’ve had more than a few.”
Sherwood gave a hollow twitch of his lips and said nothing.
D𝗂𝘀с𝗼v𝗲r 𝗵𝗶𝘥𝘥𝘦𝗻 𝗴e𝗺ѕ 𝗼𝗇 𝗴𝗮𝗹𝗻𝗈𝘃e𝗅s.𝗰𝗼𝗆
She didn’t flinch. Instead, she leaned in slightly, a faint trace of expensive perfume drifting between them. “I’ve been noticing you for a while,” she said, her eyes moving thoughtfully over his face. “You’re handsome. And there’s something about you — a kind of… nobility.”
Sherwood blinked. “Nobility? Me?”
“Absolutely.” She nodded with conviction, her gaze steady and sincere. “I’ve never come across anyone with your presence. You’re far from ordinary. So why are you here, drinking alone? Something’s happened, hasn’t it?”
Loosened by the alcohol and disarmed by her quiet attentiveness, Sherwood finally let the words he had been holding in find their way out.
“Something wrong?” He let out a bitter, short laugh. “What’s wrong with me? I’m being trampled, and there’s nothing I can do about it.”
“And who would dare?” Her eyes went wide with indignation. “Someone like you? Hurt you? That’s impossible.”
He chuckled, though the sound curdled quickly into something grim.
“You don’t understand,” he muttered, shaking his head. “That man has everything — the future son-in-law of Havenridge Group’s chairman, a hero in Eshea, better looking, more accomplished, loved by everyone. And me? I can’t even come close.”
His voice faltered, Kari’s words echoing behind his own — nowhere near Brad’s level — and his eyes burned with the sting of it.
The woman stayed quiet for a moment, then let out a soft, empathetic sigh.
“Sir — I may not fully understand the world you move in, but I have to say something.” Sherwood looked at her, curious in spite of himself. “That man is only where he is because she chose him, isn’t he?” Her eyes held his, steady and earnest. “Take her away, and what is he? You built your position yourself, with your own hands. What makes you any less than him?”
Sherwood paused. The thought settled somewhere deeper than the drink could reach.
Right. What, exactly, made Brad so exceptional? Sherwood’s abilities were entirely his own — he had borrowed them from no one.
“Sir?” the woman prompted gently.
He shook off the fog of despair, something sharp and quiet returning to his eyes.
“What’s your name?” he asked.
She smiled, warmth filling her gaze. “Rosalie. That’ll do.”
Sherwood nodded, about to reply, when something across the room caught his eye — a booth tucked into the shadowed far corner of the bar. The light was low, but he recognized the figure seated there immediately.
Brad. And sitting across from him was a woman.
.
.
.